Gwladys Laffitte, edited by Solène Delinger 1:42 p.m., February 17, 2022

After thirteen days of hearing, this Thursday, the Advocate General Jacques Dallest delivered his indictment at the trial of Nordahl Lelandais: he requires life imprisonment against the 38-year-old accused, with a security period of 22 years.

Nordahl Lelandais has been on trial since January 31 by the Assize Court of Isère for the murder of Maëlys de Araujo, preceded by kidnapping and forcible confinement.

"I ask you to declare him a great criminal, a great predator, guilty of the facts."

Advocate General Jacques Dallest delivered his indictment at the trial of Nordahl Lelandais.

He requires life imprisonment against the 38-year-old accused, with a security period of 22 years, that is to say 22 years during which he could not apply for release.

Nordahl Lelandais has been on trial since January 31 by the Isère Assize Court for the murder of little Maëlys de Araujo. 

"A child killer"

Hearing these requisitions Nordahl Lelandais seemed to stagger, accusing the blow.

The Advocate General had spoken to him a few minutes before: "you have sown despair, eternal suffering, you are a destroyer of happiness, a pest of innocence, a child killer". 

Words that the family of Maëlys was waiting for.

"Without excess in form and substance, the Attorney General requested the just sentence, the sentence my clients were expecting, the sentence Maëlys' family and parents were waiting for. I think he also requested the pain that the French were waiting for”, reacted Me Fabien Rajon, the lawyer for the family of Maëlys. 

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The “obviously sexual” motive

Just as the family thinks, the attorney general is convinced, the motive for this crime is "obviously sexual".

And Nordahl Lelandais demonstrated it point by point, evoking a "multiple, invasive, illegal, destructive" sexuality which resulted in the murder of Maëlys.

But no material element can support the intimate conviction of the magistrate, Nordahl Lelandais cannot therefore be condemned for the rape of Maelys

Despite this, the man is "extremely dangerous" and must therefore be heavily condemned according to the Advocate General.